Catcher in the Rye Author Dies at Age 91

Legendary Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger passed away Thursday at his home in Cornish, N.H., the Associated Press reports. He was 91.

In a statement to the AP, Salinger's son said the scribe died of natural causes.

Best known for bringing rebellious teen Holden Caulfield to life in the pages of 1951's adolescent novel Catcher in the Rye, Salinger's last published work, a novella called "Hapworth 16, 1924," appeared in The New Yorker in 1965.

As known for his reclusive nature as for his writing, Salinger lived in self-imposed isolation for decades in the tiny New Hampshire town with a population of 1,600.

"I love to write and I assure you I write regularly," Salinger, raised on New York City's posh Park Avenue, told the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate in 1980. "But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it."